CSS courses are taught by faculty who meet the high standards of the University of Washington. The CSS faculty have experience in the software industry and are focused on providing a unique and innovative learning environment for students. Industry experts will be invited to classes to share their knowledge about emerging computing technologies and software development techniques. In addition, each student will have a faculty advisor for guidance in developing the student portfolio and an internship with a local industry partner.

Full Time

Laurie Anderson, Ph.D.

Dr. Laurie Anderson has worked for two decades in the high-tech computer marketplace as a software developer, network manager, competitive analyst, product manager, and technical and marketing writer. Working with small and large computer organization, including DEC, SUN, and IBM, she has experience in all aspects of the product development cycle with mini-, micro-, and personal-computers, operating systems, networking, and computer security. Her varied experience brings a practical, real-world view of computer technology and business communications that she applies to her teaching.

Hazeline Asuncion, Ph.D.

Dr. Asuncion received her Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California, Irvine, in 2009. Prior to coming to UW Bothell, she was a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Institute for Software Research at the University of California, Irvine. She has also worked in industry in a variety of roles: as a software engineer at Unisys Corporation and as a traceability engineer at Wonderware Corporation where she designed a successful in-house traceability system.

Her research emphasis is on traceability and she has developed a novel software traceability approach that automatically links distributed and heterogeneous information. She has investigated the tracing of software license conflicts in heterogeneously composed software systems. Dr. Asuncion is also interested in investigating the traceability challenges in other domains such as e-Science and health care.

Min Chen, Ph.D.

Dr. Chen received her M.S. and Ph. D. at the School of Computing and Information Sciences at Florida International University, Miami, Florida. Prior to coming to UW Bothell, she was a tenured associate professor at the Department of Computer Science, University of Montana.

Frank Cioch, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus

Dr. Cioch is a software engineer, with degrees in math, statistics and computer engineering, and a doctorate in Computer and Communications Sciences from the University of Michigan. After obtaining his Ph.D. in 1985, he taught at Oakland University in the greater Detroit area. He moved to Seattle and started teaching at Bothell in 2000. After 25 years in the classroom, he retired from teaching in 2010.

Dr. Cioch's technical interests derive from his basic interest in software comprehension, both as it relates to software's internal characteristics and to its utilization in a particular environment. His specialty is assessing the degree of fit of software engineering techniques, tools and methods to any given situation, and tailoring their application to enhance their effectiveness. His practical experience includes serving as a contractor for the U.S. Army, consulting for auto-related companies and participating in the failure of two start-up companies.

Dr. Cioch enjoys teaching because his classes are usually filled with practitioners who are interested in applying what they learn to solve problems they are facing. This affords him an opportunity to make a difference in how they approach their career, a challenge to earn their respect, and a continual source of motivation to keep abreast of current developments.

William Erdly, Ph.D.

Dr. Erdly is a graduate of the University of Washington where he received his Ph.D. in social/organizational psychology. He has held significant
leadership positions in a variety of industry and government technology organizations - and continues his involvement in entrepreneurship and software innovation. This on-going experience serves as a baseline for his research interests in social computing/analytics, human-computer interaction, game design/mechanics, wide area network (WAN) design, computer science research methods, health care informatics and software engineering/project management. He was the founding Director of the CSS program, and currently serves as the Director of the newly launched Interactive Media Design (IMD) degree.

Munehiro Fukuda, Ph.D.

Dr. Munehiro Fukuda received a B.S. from the College of Information Sciences and an M.S. from the Master's Program in Science and Engineering at the University of Tsukuba in 1986 and 1988. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Information and Computer Science at the University of California at Irvine in 1995 and 1997, respectively. He has worked in the hardware development of shared-memory multiprocessors at IBM Tokyo Research Laboratory from 1988 to 1993. During his Ph.D. and PostDoc study at UC Irvine from 1993 to 1997, he has focused on software technologies to coordinate parallel and distributed computations, using a navigational autonomy approach. During 1998-2001, he was an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Information Sciences and Electronics at the University of Tsukuba, where he has designed the M++ self-migrating threads to realize parallel execution of multi-agent applications. His research interests include mobile agents, multi-threading, cluster computing, grid computing and distributed simulations.

Charles Jackels, Ph.D.

Dr. Jackels is a graduate of the University of Washington where he earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry. For many years, Dr. Jackels' research had focused primarily on application of large-scale computational science methods to chemical and physical problems involving the ground and excited state properties of small molecules, especially those that are of importance in Earth's atmosphere. These studies employed large-scale CASSCF, configuration interaction, and perturbation theory calculations.

Recently his scholarship has moved in an entirely different direction, involving collaboration in an international project to conduct service-based chemistry research for improvement of coffee quality with Nicaraguan small-holder coffee farmers. This project has involved field work on farms in Nicaragua and laboratory studies in both Seattle and Managua.

Wooyoung Kim, Ph.D.

Dr. Wooyoung Kim received her Ph.D. in computer science at Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA., in 2012. She has an M.S. in computer science at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA., and an M.S. and B.S. in mathematics at Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea. She has worked as a computer programmer and as a researcher in TELSTON, Inc., Seoul, Korea. She developed various computer-telephony integration systems including CallBank at the company.

Dr. Kim’s current research interests is in bioinformatics and systems biology, which is, in nature, an interdisciplinary study including not only various areas in computer science (such as machine learning, data mining, numerical analysis, graph theory and pattern recognition), but also various subjects (biology, chemistry, engineering, statistics and physics). Her PhD work was to detect and evaluate biological motifs.

Mark Kochanski, M.S.

Mark Kochanski is a graduate of Purdue University where he studied both geology and computer sciences leading up to an M.S. in Economic Geology with a computer application-based thesis in 1984. Mark started working in the computing industry during high school in the mid-70s. From the mid-80s through early 90s,Mark worked in the petroleum industry developing application, enterprise, and industry-wide data models, databases, and user-friendly, data-oriented applications. In 1993, Mark started his successful independent consulting company, Albion Technology, which has provided technology expertise and IT support to a variety of business and organizations. In Mark's 25+ years in the computing field, he has provided computing expertise for a variety of companies from Exxon to startups, educational institutions, non-profit organizations, and the U.S. Government; worked in a variety of computing environments from palm to mainframe and from standalone to massively distributed; developed from device drivers, database engines, and middleware, to business and technical/scientific applications.

Mark's industry background and on-going experience with clients reinforces Mark's desire to help train quality software developers who can grow into technical leads, software architects, and beyond. Mark's technical interests includes anything database, user-friendly applications, component-based systems, XML, and other technologies that lead to creative solutions to difficult real-world problems.

Brent Lagesse, Ph.D.

Dr. Lagesse received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Texas at Arlington in 2009. Prior to coming to UW Bothell, he held positions as a research scientist in the cyber security research groups at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and BBN Technologies.

Dr. Lagesse's expertise is in the areas of cyber security and pervasive systems. His dissertation research was focused on developing trust in pervasive systems, such as mobile peer-to-peer or dynamic service composition. Through game theoretic techniques, he enabled more reliable and secure access to services and resources in pervasive computing environments. Further, he established a framework for increasing code and information reuse in distributed trust mechanisms and for easing the deployment of these mechanisms. His current research focuses on formal methods, internet voting, device and wireless privacy, and secure online machine learning.

Danielle Lee, Ph.D.

Dr. Danielle Lee received a M.S. degree in Telecommunication and Network Management from Sangmyung University and Syracuse University in 1998 and 2001, respectively. She received her Ph.D. in Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh in 2013. Before pursuing her doctoral degree, she has worked for Samsung SDS Inc., as a software engineer.

Dr. Lee's research interests lie on interdisciplinary research focusing on knowledge management and social media. Her past research revealed an in-depth understanding of knowledge-sharing patterns on various social media applications. She also developed personalized recommendations using social networks, highlighting the potential for new types of social recommendations expandable to more diverse social networks. Her current research focuses on information personalization technologies on social media and the nature of socially constructed metadata.

Clark Olson, Ph.D.

Dr. Clark Olson received the B.S. degree in computer engineering in 1989 and the M.S. degree in electrical engineering in 1990, both from the University of Washington, Seattle. He received the Ph.D. degree in computer science in 1994 from the University of California, Berkeley. After spending two years doing research at Cornell University, he moved to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he spent five years working on computer vision techniques for Mars rovers and other applications. Dr. Olson joined the faculty at the University of Washington, Bothell in 2001. His research interests include computer vision, clustering, and robot navigation. He teaches classes on introductory programming, data structures, algorithms, database systems, and computer vision.

David Socha, Ph.D.

A fellow Husky, Dr. Socha received his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Washington. He also received his B.S. in Zoology from the University of Wisconsin and M.S. in Computer Science from the UW.

He has worked in a variety of software organizations as a programmer, architect, manager, teacher, ScrumMaster, product designer, change agent, and agile coach. His interests have consistently been on how to effectively design software and human systems, with the focus on the human and social aspects of software development.

“I am a pragmatist. A collaborator. An optimist. I look for simple solutions that address underlying design forces.”

Michael Stiber, Ph.D.

Dr. Stiber received a BS in Computer Science and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Washington University, Saint Louis, in 1983, and his MS and PhD in Computer Science from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he was a Research and a Teaching Assistant. He has held positions with Texas Instruments (Dallas, Texas), Philips (Eindhoven, Netherlands), and the IBM Los Angeles Scientific Center. He was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology during 1992-96 and a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley in 1996-97. Dr. Stiber is a frequent visitor to the Department of Biophysical Engineering at Osaka University (Japan). His research interests include: scientific data management and visualization, computational neuroscience, biocomputing, neuroinformatics, simulation, scientific computing, neural networks, autonomous systems, computer graphics, computer vision, nonlinear dynamics, and complex systems.

Kelvin Sung, Ph.D.

Dr. Kelvin Sung received his Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1992. His background is in computer graphics, hardware and machine architecture. He came to UW Bothell from Alias|Wavefront in Toronto, where he played a key role in designing and implementing the Maya Renderer, a new generation image synthesis system. He also co-designed a patented motion blur algorithm. Images generated based on that algorithm can be found in movies including Independence Day and Wing Commander. Before joining Alias|Wavefront, Kelvin was an Assistant Professor with the School of Computing, National University of Singapore. Kelvin's research interests are in studying the role of technology in supporting human communication. Currently he is studying how different media delivered by technology can better support the presentation of ideas.

Geethapriya Thamilarasu, Ph.D.

Dr. Thamilarasu received her Ph.D. in computer science and engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 2009. Before coming to UWB, she was an Assistant Professor of Computer and Information Science at the SUNY Institute of Technology, where she directed the wireless sensor and networking security research lab and led development of their MS in Network and Computer Security degree.

Dr. Thamilarasu's research focus is in the field of wireless ad hoc and sensor networks with emphasis on network security and cross-layer optimizations. Her past research addressed the building of robust intrusion detection systems in wireless ad hoc and sensor networks using cross-layer optimizations to provide secure and reliable wireless networked systems. Her current research is mainly directed towards addressing security in biomedical wireless sensor networks, cloud computing, and vehicular networking.

Carol Zander, Ph.D.

Dr. Zander received an M.S. degree in mathematics from the University of Colorado and a M.S. and Ph.D. in computer science from Colorado State University. She has worked in the software industry at Hewlett-Packard and IBM, and her interests include object-oriented programming and design, programming languages, and computer science education. After her original Ph.D. work in Distributed Artificial Intelligence, she was drawn to the education aspect and currently focuses on Computer Science Education research. Her primary research group includes colleagues from the US, Sweden, and Wales.

Before becoming a founding faculty member of CSS, Dr. Zander spent many years shaping the minds of students, teaching mathematics and computer science at the University of Maine, Colorado State University, and Seattle University. At Seattle University her students rewarded her efforts by voting her outstanding faculty awards. In 2002, Dr. Zander received the University of Washington's highest teaching honor, the Distinguished Teaching Award.

Affiliate

Mohamed Ali, Ph.D.

Dr. Mohamed Ali is a senior software design engineer in the StreamInsight group at Microsoft. Mohamed’s research interests include advancing the state-of-the-art in the design and implementation of data streaming systems to cope with emerging application requirements. In summer 2006, Mohamed visited the database group at Microsoft Research (MSR) where he and his colleagues ramped up the Complex Event Detection and Response (CEDR) project. Then, Mohamed joined the SQL Server group at Microsoft to productize the CEDR project. CEDR has shipped and brand-named as Microsoft StreamInsight. Since the first public release of StreamInsight, Mohamed has been advocating for “real-time information management everywhere”; that is the use of StreamInsight in monitoring, managing and mining real time information across a diversity of verticals. These verticals include but are not limited to: online advertising, behavioral targeting, business intelligence, computational finance, traffic management, social networking, homeland security, emergency and crisis management.

Eric Brechner, Ph.D.

Dr. Eric Brechner is the development manager for the Xbox Engineering Services. He is widely known within the engineering community as his alter ego, I.M. Wright. Prior to his current assignment, Eric managed development for the Xbox.com web sites, was director of engineering learning and development for Microsoft Corporation, and managed development for a shared feature team in Microsoft Office.

Before joining Microsoft in 1995, Eric was a senior principal scientist at The Boeing Company, where he worked in the areas of large-scale visualization, computational geometry, network communications, data-flow languages, and software integration. He was the principal architect of FlyThru, the walkthrough program for the 20 gigabyte, 500+ million polygon model of the Boeing 777 aircraft. Eric has also worked in computer graphics and CAD for Silicon Graphics, GRAFTEK, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He has published a book on software best practices, holds eight patents, earned a BS and MS in mathematics and a PhD in applied mathematics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and was a certified performance technologist.

Jeffry Howbert, Ph.D.

Dr. Howbert received a B.A. in English Literature from Stanford University in 1977 and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry in 1983. Thereafter he pursued a long first career in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. His achievements include the entry of six new drugs into clinical trials, over 40 issued U.S. patents, and positions as Vice-President of Research at two Seattle-area biotech companies, Celltech R&D and CEPTYR, Inc.

In more recent years he transitioned to a second career in computer science. Since obtaining a M.S. in Computer Science from University of Washington in 2008, he has specialized in the application of machine learning to large, complex datasets, mostly in the biomedical field. He worked on parallelized ensemble learning platforms at Insilicos LLC, and on building models to predict epileptic seizures from intracranial EEG at NeuroVista Corp. His current research is primarily in computational proteomics, conducted in the Department of Genome Sciences at University of Washington. He also consults for Zillow, Inc. on real estate valuation models.

Joseph McCarthy, Ph.D.

Joe McCarthy is an irrepressible instigator, connector and evangelist, interested in the ways that people connect technologies and the ways that technologies connect people. Joe's research and development experience spans the areas of artificial intelligence, natural language processing, machine learning, ubiquitous computing, human-computer interaction and computer-supported cooperative work. After 15 years in the corporate world, Joe renewed his early passion for education, returning to academia in 2011 to empower students to program rather than be programmed. He currently enjoys teach introductory programming courses as well as senior-level computer science courses in operating systems, computer networks, human-computer interaction and social robotics.

Joe's most recent corporate position was founder and director of Strands Labs Seattle, where he led an applied R&D team for Oregon-based Strands Labs, Inc. Prior to joining Strands, Joe was a principal scientist at Nokia, and a senior researcher at Intel and Accenture. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts, and his career includes earlier roles as entrepreneur, professor and consultant. Joe has authored or co-authored over 40 technical publications, given over 50 presentations, and has served as Conference Co-Chair of CSCW 2002, General Chair of UbiComp 2003, Program Co-Chair of UbiComp 2008, and Chair of the UbiComp Steering Committee from 2003-2009. He currently serves as Editor of the Social Mediator Forum at ACM Interactions magazine.

Macneil Shonle, Ph.D.

AffiliateAssistant Professor

Dr. Shonle is a software engineer and received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, San Diego in 2009. Prior to his affiliation with UW Bothell, he was an assistant professor at The University of Texas at San Antonio, from 2009 to 2012. He received his BA in Computer Science from Clark University in 2000. Before graduate school, he worked in the industry for three years as an individual contributor at Sun Microsystems.

Dr. Shonle’s research interests in software engineering include refactoring, software design, aspect-oriented programming, programming language design, and programming tools. Dr. Shonle is a co-investigator, along with Dr. Asuncion, on an NSF-funded project (award 1218266) on the topic of tracing and reasoning about changing artifacts.